ESXi 4 change management network from vmk0 to vmk1 impossible?

[ianacces]

Hi

I have an esxi 4.1 host with 2 physical NICs and 2 vmkernel ports set. These are on different networks. If, on the console, in the Management Network area, I deselect vmnic0 and select vmnic1, I am not able to successfully change the IP of the management network. It refuses to be changed.

Moreover, all network access fails, vmnic1 disappears and I have to reboot the ESXi host and add vmnic1 again.

Is it possible to change the management network in ESXi 4 from vmk0 to vmk1? I'm starting to wonder.

Thanks in advance.

Ian

[ianacces]

Addendum:

1. As far as I can see from a vSphere client connection, the settings of the 2 NICs are the same.

2. If I try to switch the management network, or in fact add vmnic1 so that I have 2 management networks, I get the following warning: 

"One or more of the selected adaptors are already used for other connections. Remove these adaptors from their current connections?" I don't really understand this and as I said, vmnic0 has basically the same configuration.

[admin]

Hi ianacces

Welcome to the communites

Its known issuse.

Please let us know if you have follwed below link.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1179

"Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoe."

[ianacces]

thanks for the reply juan11

I had already read that page and since this problem is occurring on an ESXi host it doeswn't seem to apply. There is only one VM on this hypervizor at the moment. It is powered off and even when it was on, it was set to a different unused IP.

If you think this really applies to my case, please can you tell me why?

thanks

[beckham007fifa]

yes, it is possible to change the management ip. I would suggest you a simple step. take the cosole session of the esxi using rsa, ilo or drac or go to the server directly if you are in DC.

get inside the esxi console and there you can see management network, change the nic and the ip accordingly.

P.S make sure you have proper cable activated with proper vlans and ips

[ianacces]

beckham007fifa thanks for the reply

I would much rather not have to do this but I will, of course,  if necessary.

Can you point me to a page which shows the commands necessary to do this please? Is it a subset of vim-cmd vmsvc? (I've just used that command for the first time but I can't see anything relating to management network settings)

thanks

[beckham007fifa]

if you are not going to use remote console then you would lose connectivity when changing the ips and switching the nics.

BTW here are the commands to do it

# esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic vSwitch    # unlink an uplink, vmk0 in your case
# esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic vSwitch    # add an uplink, vmk1 in your case

esxcfg-vmknic -a -i IP_address -n netmask  portgroup

Hope this is what you need, you can do it through vMA's and pcli as well. There are many ways to do this change.

[beckham007fifa]

You wrote:

Is it a subset of vim-cmd vmsvc?

no its not

[ianacces]

beckham007fifa

thanks again for the reply

if you are not going to use remote console then you would lose connectivity when changing the ips and switching the nics.

I will lose connectivity if I don't use a remote console? Surely I'll lose connectivity if I *do* use a remote console ...

# esxcfg-vswitch -U vmnic vSwitch    # unlink an uplink, vmk0 in your case
# esxcfg-vswitch -L vmnic vSwitch    # add an uplink, vmk1 in your case
esxcfg-vmknic -a -i IP_address -n netmask  portgroup

Thanks for that. However this looks like it will remove a vmnic from a vswitch which is not what I want to do.

I want to keep both vmnics and both vswitches active as there are VMs on both. What I want to do is change the management console IP **as far as the ESXi console is concerned** to the settings on vmnic1. When I do that from the ESXi console GUI, I get the "One or more of the selected adaptors are already used for other connections" warning.

Sorry if I'm being slow here. I haven't done this before and I can't find any particularly relevant info, which is why I'm asking here.

Thanks